A tea picking robot is solving labour shortage crisis in the industry
Established in 2019, Surinova offers practical business solutions for the farming sector.
Valparai, a hill station in Tamil Nadu, is renowned for its production of high-quality teas. Yet, the once bustling valleys filled with labourers, now face a shortage as many labourers have migrated to the plains for better opportunities.
In conversation with SMBStory, G Sundarrajan, CEO and Co-founder of , which provides business solutions to the farming sector, recalls that around 20 years ago, Valparai had about five lakh people in its electoral rolls which have now reduced to just a lakh, highlighting the impact of migration in the region.
“Valparai's workforce, once dominated by tea pickers, has significantly dwindled due to mass migration. Many have abandoned agricultural labour due to low wages and uncertainty, opting instead for white or blue-collar occupations,” Sundarrajan says.
Previously, South Indian plantations needed 6,000 labourers for a harvest cycle, but now only 1,300 are available. To address this labour shortage and ensure continuous tea harvests, Surinova introduced e-vehicle T-Rover in 2022.
Explaining the product, Sundarrajan says “agriculture is one such field where innovation is happening at a very slow pace and that’s another reason why people are quitting. Surinova is an agrobotics (agricultural robotics) company that is on a mission to introduce a product blended with robotics, mechanical engineering, and artificial intelligence for the agriculture sector,”
T-Rover by Surinova
Surinova began its journey as an LLP company founded by Arulmani Ethirajan and Suganya Venkatachalam in 2019. Sundarrajan joined the company in 2022 when it turned to Pvt Ltd.
“After three years of dedicated research by, this Rover comprehensively understands the challenges faced by the tea plantation industry and effectively resolves them,” he says adding that the product has recently bagged an order from Parry Agro for 25 machines.
In total, founders have invested Rs 9 crore in Surinova.
According to Sundarrajan, each machine costs Rs 30 lakh. The company is currently in pre-revenue stage and has a Rs 60 lakh grant from Parry Agro.
So, how does the machine aid the harvesting process?
Sundarrajan explains that the T-Rover is designed to navigate slopes up to 30 degrees with ease through its sensors and controllers and its precision engineering picks tea leaves for processing. As an e-vehicle, it saves on fuel costs and keeps the plantation environment clean. T-Rover is operated remotely via a joystick-like controller and is easy to use even for semi-skilled workers.
“T-Rover can do the work of 28 people, requiring just one operator and two assistants. This helps address the labour shortage faced by tea farms,” he adds. In addition to aiding in harvesting, Sunderrajan highlights that this innovation opens up opportunities for people to pursue or rover operator jobs, thus stemming the tide of migration from their hometowns.
Solution to the dilemma in the tea industry
India’s tea industry faces a shortage of harvesters and the ones currently employed are usually around 50 years or older, meaning that younger workers are hesitant to pick these jobs.
Surinova’s innovative T-Rover and other products in the pipeline are a solution to this problem where Sundarrajan claims that this is the world's first such kind of product that is used in tea harvesting.
In today’s manufacturing space where China leads any other country in the manufacturing sector, Sundarrajan says that the latter did try to make a similar product but that was image-based sensing however, that was a failure for them. “So, we have a first mover advantage where we are in talks with other countries like Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, etc, to export our product,” he added.
Products in the making
Talking about Surinova’s other products, Sundarrajan says that the company is in the process of making Sugarcane Rovers, Paddy Rovers, and more.
“We want to be a HaaS, which means Harvesting as a Service company where large factories would buy these products from us and rent to farmers,” says Sundarrajan.
Surinova has currently filed eight patents for its T-Rover.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti